Boxed row firecracker package



Nov. 23, 1937. R. B. WHITESIDE BOXED ROW FIRECRAGKER PACKAGE Filed Aug. 8, 1936 Patented Nov. 23, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE 2,099,783 BOXED ROW FIRECRACKER PACKAGE Robert Banning Whiteside, Los Angeles, Calif,

Application August 8, 1936, Serial No. 94,949

11 Claims.

This invention is a firecracker package.

Chinese firecrackers are commonly put up in flat packs in which the fuses are twisted together in a braid or otherwise extended between the contiguous inner ends of crackers laid transversely in two parallel rows. This system of packing facilitates the burning of a whole package at one time: a Chinese custom.

The present invention has for an object to provide a firm, reinforced, flat package of parallel rows of transverse crackers, and to provide a package in which they are entirely unattached, and are not attached in any manner to the structural elements of the package, as when the crackers are directly attached to an adhesive band. In the package of the present invention the crackers and their fuses are readily individually removable without danger of breaking the fuses, and without having to tear off each cracker from any adhesive band.

Further, an object is toprovide means forming an individual receiver or box for each row of unattached crackers, and which provides a device for aiding in positioning the crackers in their rows and firmly holding them so arranged in the finished package without any need for tying, braiding or directly adhesively binding them in their rows, and forming a means for protecting the crackers.

An additional object is to provide for the rigid reinforcement of the assembled, boxed rows of firecrackers in addition to the reinforcement afforded by the containing boxes, and further to utilize as a reinforcing element a stiif stick, bar, rod or strip of material such as a loss-stick or other slow-burning match which may be utilized in the usual manner to light the fuses of the crackers.

Also, an object is to provide, in such a package, parts presenting large display area and an exterior, transparent binding, sealing and protecting cover making visible the separate boxed rows of crackers.

And further, an object is to provide a neat, substantial, compact package of low cost of material, and to provide a novel and simple method for making the package by unskilled labor rapidly with accuracy, with a minimum wastage because the crackers are boxed in their containers with a minimum of handling of the fragile fuses.

The invention consists in certain advancements in this art as set forth in the ensuing disclosure and having, with the above, additional objects and advantages as hereinafter developed, and whose construction, combination and details of means, and method of production, will be made manifest in the description of the herewith illustrative embodiment; it being understood that modifications, variations and adaptations may be resorted to within the scope, principle and spirit of the invention as it is more directly claimed hereinbelow.

Figure 1 is a perspective of the preferred form of completed package. Figure 2 is a perspective of a box for a row of the crackers. Figure 3 is a perspective of a cracker showing the overlaid fuse. Figure 4 is a perspective of the back-bone stick. Figure 5 is a plan of a blank for constructing a box. Figure 6 is a perspective of another form of package wrapper.

The firecracker 2 has a fragile, twisted paper fuse 3 extending from one end and which, if broken off close to the cracker ruins it except that it may be broken in two and burned as a sizzer.

In the package of this invention the fuse 3 of each cracker 2 is bent back over one end of the cracker and laid along the body of the cracker and this is then inserted endwise, at the fuse end, into a narrow, deep open-mouthed box 4 which is perferably of less depth than the length of the crackers to be packed therein transversely in a fiat row filling the box. Thus the fuseless ends of the crackers extend somewhat from the box mouth to be readily grasped for extraction of the crackers individually, and the fuses for the greater part of their length lie in and are protected by the boxes.

A pair of the thus packed boxes 4 are laid fiat with the fuseless, outer ends of the crackers 2 of each row in juxtaposition against an interposed back-bone element consisting of a slow-burning material, such as a joss-stick 5, which will thus lie parallel to the rows of transverse firecrackers extending inward from boxes 4 which lie parallel to each other on the outer ends of the crackers of the two rows, and are considerably spaced from each other as determined by the length of the crackers and the depth of the boxes in which their rows are packed.

The inner margins of the boxes, that is the mouth end or sides, are firmly connected to each other, across the exposed firecracker bodies, by a pasted on girdle 6 preferably of tough, thin, transparent paper or other suitable material to envelope the bodies projecting from the spaced boxes. Thus the boxes protect the fuses and firmly retain the rows of crackers in a fiat position, and the girdle 6 forms a tight seal and renders visible the projecting portions of the firecrackers packed in their boxes. The large panels of the boxes may be imprinted with suitable display matter which may be partly or entirely covered by the transparent girdle 6, as desired. 7

The packed, assembled boxes 4 may becovered by a completely enclosing wrapper 8, Fig. 6, instead of the girdle 6, if preferred.

The box 4 may be formed of a blank having equal side panels 4 connected by a narrow bottom-forming web 4 along which the panels are folded upward and are sealed in parallel position when their end flaps 4 are foldedinward, overlapped and pasted one on the other at the ends of the box.

What is claimed is:

1. A firecracker package consisting of a pair of open-mouth boxes, a flat row of parallel crackers packed in each box and these being of less depth 7 than the length of the crackers, the rows being arranged in opposed coplanar relation with their projecting ends in contiguity, and disruptive binding means girdling the boxed rows'and hold ing them against displacement; the individual crackers being unattached in any manner to other elements of the package. V

2. A firecracker package as set forth in claim 1, and a device arranged in the pack and extending transversely to the length of the crackers to form a, reinforcement for the package.

3. A firecracker package as set forth in claim 1, and in which the girdling means is adhesively attached to the said boxes and seals the package.

4. A firecracker package having a pair of parallel, coplanar, open-mouth boxes with the mouthsin inward opposite relation, a flat'row of firecrackers packed in, and projecting from the.

mouth of,'each boxwith their inner ends in contiguity, and abindingmeans girdling the project ing portions of the crackers and adhesively sealed to the boxes and holding the rows of crackers and the boxes against separation and displacement. a

5. A pack of firecrackers as set forth in claim 4 and in which the fuses of the crackers are at the distal ends of the crackers in the pack.

6. A pack of firecrackers composed of two rows of crackers opposite each other in a common plane with their ends in contiguity at adjacent sides of the respective rows, flat boxes embracing the distal ends of the crackers of the opposed rows and which are spaced from each other by portions of the crackers projecting inwardly from the inner edges of mouths of the boxes, and a wrapper covering the projecting portions of the crackers and holding the said boxes in their opposed relation; the. individual crackers being entirely unattached in the pack.

'7. A pack as set forth in claim 6, and in which the fuse ends of the crackers are arranged at the outer sides of the rows of crackers.

. 8. A pack as set forth in claim 6, and in which the wrapper consists-of a girdle adhesively attached to the inner or adjacent portions of the spaced boxes. a

9. A pack as set forth in claim 6, and in which the wrapper consists of a transparent girdle adhesively attached to and connecting the spaced boxes'and forming a display window over the portions of thecrackers' exposed between the boxes. V

10. A pack of firecrackers composed of parallel rows of crackers which lie transversely in their rows in a common plane with theirinner ends in contiguity at adjacent sides of the opposing rows, fiat boxes embracing distal ends of the'c'rackers of the opposed rows and which boxes are spaced from each other by portions of the crackers projecting inwardly from the inner edges or mouthsof the boxes, and a wrapper covering the projecting portions of the crackers and securing'the boxes in their coplanar, opposed relation.

11. A pack as set forth in claim' 10, and having a reinforcing device in the form of a stiff stick arranged transversely in the pack and in the plane of the rows of crackers.

ROBERT BANNING WHITES IDE. 

